Katie Hopkins like Piers Morgan on steroids, says Alan Sugar

Alan Sugar has compared former Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins to “Piers Morgan on steroids”.

Hopkins, 40, who appeared in the 2007 series of the BBC show and now has her own TV show, has been criticised for remarks she made about Syrian refugees escaping conflict.

Sugar, 68, said in an interview with The Times Magazine that Hopkins uses controversial comments “to make herself famous”.

Earlier this year Hopkins compared migrants to cockroaches in her column, and has previously demanded that fat people pay extra tax. However when discussing her TV show – ’If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World’ – she has claimed she isn’t trying to play a pantomime villain.

But Alan Sugar said: “Her niche is to be obnoxious and controversial and it’s a shtick. She’s just trying to make herself famous. She’s chosen a niche in the market for herself. She’s become Piers Morgan on steroids, if there could be such a thing.”

Sugar also said it was hard to work out a contestant’s personality when choosing them for the BBC show, which returns for its 11th series later this month.

He said: “You don’t know what the real characters are like until you get into the Apprentice process and I think we’re a bit more streetwise now.”